When we arrived in Langkawi we went through a relatively painless customs (compared to Thailand!), we got through in about 30 mins. All four of us (including Mikel) then got a taxi to the main beach resort on the island (Pentai Cenang). We had a bit of difficulty finding accomodation, in the end settling for somewhere which was really experience in comparison to what we had been paying in Thailand. Langkawi is a holiday resort for many Malaysians though, so there are not a lot of travellers' hostels. We dumped our stuff and went for a walk along the beach and then found a restaurant where we had dinner. I opted for a yellow curry, having enjoyed one in Thailand, only to find out that colours of curries are not comparable to those in Thailand when in Malaysia, Malay curries being much hotter! So I coughed my way through and only ate the chicken, leaving most of the sauce (which is like a soup). We then wandered a mile or so up the road to the only cashpoint for miles!!!!

The next day we had already decided we were going to visit the famous cable car and nearby waterfalls. At first we were going to hire bicycles, but when we found out how expensive they were (more than a car!) we opted for hiring a car instead!!! It was a bit of a wreck, but drivable, and Karl and I shared driving duties! We first had to fill up as it was given to us empty....half a tank cost 4 pounds!!! Then we went back to our hostel and moved to a cheaper one down the road! We then drove to the waterfall and climbed about a million steps ("I hate steps, they are the bain of my life....they seem to follow me round the world!!!") to the top where there were bathing pools. We all had a bit of a dip and there were natural slides between each pool which were a lot of fun! Afterwards we drove to the cable car. At the bottom is the 'Oriental Village' a complex of loads of tourist shops. The cable car was amazing! The views over the island were magnificent and the design of the the stations and bridge were, in my opinion, also amazing! There was a mid-point station where you could get off and enjoy the views and then get back on to the top. Just before the mid-point station thought, the route was really steep in order to get over a cliff and Karl couldn't look! The top station was much the same design wise as the mid station but the bridge at the top made it better! It was curved and the views from that were breathtaking. The construction however prevented Karl from walking over, as there were gaps between the concrete planks and some moved!!!! We went down, grabbed some late lunch and then drove to the north east of the island to a beach Mikel had heard was good. On the way we stumbled across another secluded beach near a golf course which we also investigated at Sam's request, but access to the resort was denied, especially in our hunk of junk!!!! We drove back to Pentai Cenang and checked our stuff into our rooms which were now ready. We then went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant where I tried Ostrich meat (very nice and much like beef). On deciding what to do the following day we decided there wasn't much left we hadn't already done, and we would be just wasting time hanging around doing nothing so we decided to leave Langkawi a day early to head to Penang. We went for a drink on a beach front reggae bar(!) and then headed back to the hostel.

The next day we made sure it was ok to leave a day early (having paid for 2 nights) and when we were given the thumbs up we packed, went for breakfast and got a taxi to the ferry port. We had about 20 mins to spare so we grabbed some lunch before queueing up for the ferry. The crossing was the best SE Asian ferry crossing to date, being exceptionally smooth with really comfy seats!